Flashy luxury logos may be fading from the marketplace as brands trend toward minimalistic, subtle branding.
Key Details
- “Quiet luxury” is the new trend, prompting prominent luxury brands such as Gucci to tone down its products’ loud logos and flashy displays.
- Logoless luxury is growing in popularity. This year, sales of products with prominent logos have fallen 43%, The Future Party reports.
- As a result, major fashion brands have increased investment in brands such as LVMH with Loro Piana and Kering Bottega Veneta, which feature more subtle logos.
Why it’s news
Fashion trends are changing, and rather than proudly displaying the expensive items they can afford, shoppers are more focused on quality and style—and being low-key. Flashy Gucci belts and monogrammed Louis Vuitton totes are fading out of fashion.
Like with most fashion trends, logos come in and out of popularity. Most often, large logos become trendy when consumers have disposable income. Now that many shoppers are working with a reduced budget, their preferences focus on quality and style rather than the name brand, Fast Company reports.
During economic booms, younger shoppers tend to purchase luxury items. These consumers often prefer loud, flashy logos to show off their success. However, during economically difficult times, older consumers are the primary buyers of luxury items. These customers prefer a more subtle approach.
Young customers want to show off the fact that they can afford luxury brands, but for older customers, the lack of a logo is itself a status symbol.
“It’s a signaling mechanism,” ALH Advisory consultant Anne Line Hansen says. “Understated luxury is a way of saying you’re culturally astute, and that you no longer need big, ostentatious logos to signal wealth.”
At the same time fashion trends are changing, many fashion houses are also turning to new leadership. Gucci has yet to replace Alessandro Michele, who left in 2022. Louis Vuitton recently selected Pharrell Williams as its new menswear designer. Burberry hired a new creative director, Daniel Lee. Many of these new company leaders will look for ways to distinguish themselves from their predecessors, accelerating the trend away from big, flashy logos, Fast Company reports.
Additionally, consumers are growing more aware of the environmental effects of their shopping. Sustainability is more important to shoppers than ever before. Flashy logos come and go out of style, but minimalistic designs will likely remain fashionable, or at least not look outdated, for longer.
